Judd: ‘Depression Was Inevitable’

Actress Ashley Judd was primed for depression as a child, because she was left on her own while her mother, singer Naomi, toured the world.

The Judd star went public with her battle against depression after she entered a program at Shades of Hope Treatment Center in Buffalo Gap, Texas, in February 2006. She now admits she has always battled the blues.

The actress tells Town & Country magazine, “I had a very unsafe and unstable childhood about 10 months out of the year. I didn’t have my normal, natural little girl needs met. I was left on my own a great deal.

“There was a time when I skipped a whole week of school because my mum was on the road, I didn’t have a ride and I’d gotten ashamed of calling friends.

“I had my first childhood depression at 8 — severe, intense, hole-in-the-soul loneliness. No one noticed.”